Mind The Gap

America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.

Jenna Coleman at the “Lulu Guinness Paint Project” in London on July 11. (Photo: Press Association via AP Images)

Amid all the excitement about Peter Capaldi being cast as the Twelfth Doctor, we wouldn’t want to overlook that there’s a huge event happening in a little over three months. The 50th anniversary of this show called Doctor Who? You might have heard of it.

Jenna Coleman (Clara) has been making the interview rounds, talking about the buzz around the set while filming the upcoming 50th anniversary special, which brings back David Tennant and Billie Piper. She told Zap2It: “Because it’s 3D, the way of shooting is totally different. The cameras are a lot bigger. It takes a lot more time with set ups, and actually filming the show. Also, just having so many people on set. It’s such an ensemble cast, with the three Doctors, with Billie Piper, myself, lots of different characters.

“It was a really nice feeling because every day felt like a celebration. You knew you were part of something special, and part of the history of the show. It will be lovely to look back in a few years and be like, ‘Cool, I was part of that whole thing!'”

Jenna also spoke of meeting Billie, who played companion Rose during the first two series of post-rebirth Who: “This was the first time I had met her. I heard a lot about her. Matt’s really good friends with Billie, so I felt like I met her before.”

Did they compare any notes about their TARDIS travels? Not really, Jenna says. “It’s funny, the stuff you talk about is more like the logistics of like, ‘Oh yeah, I used to eat at this place.’ ‘Well, actually did you know about this place?’ ‘Oh, I stayed in this place.’ We shared notes on that kind of thing, and then we just really got on. She’s great to have around. She’s got such a good energy on set as well. We all had special chairs made for us for the 50th. In between takes and stuff like that, we’d sit around and it was just like a big family.”

• Last Sunday’s Doctor Who Live reveal was, for BBC AMERICA, “the best telecast ever outside of primetime among the 25-54 demographic — sitting only behind The Royal Wedding as the best non-prime telecast ever on the channel,” per The Hollywood Reporter. It was also the most-tweeted-about non-sports program of the day.

• Back in the U.K., meanwhile, Doctor Who Magazine tweeted that the live special’s consolidated ratings of 6.37 million viewers made it “the most watched TV show of the 3-4 August weekend across all channels”.

• NPR’s Celeste Headlee suggests that the Doctor is an appropriate hero for the new millennium. “[I]f the Doctor is the chosen champion of the millennial generation, then I think it’s an interesting choice. The Doctor is at least a thousand years old. He’s mostly a pacifist. In all of his incarnations — and there are now 12 different actors who have been named to the role — he is not renowned for his brute strength or imposing physique. The Doctor solves problems through reason, intellect and compassion, not rocket launchers and machine guns.” (Cue Craig Ferguson‘s legendary cold open.)

• And this is marvelous: all of the eleven Doctors’ adventures represented on a London tube map, with each Time Lord’s journey shown as a tube line and characters and aliens as stations. To view in all of its interactive glory, visit creator Crispian Jago’s website. Found via io9.

• As part of YouTube’s Geek Week, the Nerdist presents “Anime Doctor Who” in celebration of the show’s 50th anniversary:

Kevin Wicks

Kevin Wicks founded BBCAmerica.com's Anglophenia blog back in 2005 and has been translating British culture for an American audience ever since. While not British himself - he was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri - he once received inordinate hospitality in London for sharing the name of a dead but beloved EastEnders character. His Anglophilia stems from a high school love of Morrissey, whom he calls his "gateway drug" into British culture.

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America’s British population has taken to the web to voice its displeasure at news that U.S. candy giant Hershey has successfully blocked our much loved U.K.-produced chocolate from being exported to the land of the free.